SUBTROPICAL SOUTH AFRICA

Birding Tours Worldwide

Welcome to Birding Ecotours, here we will present to you some spectacular birding tours around the world. Our trips are for small groups of only 6-8 participants. Quality is of paramount importance to us – we prefer to use superior accommodation (where available at the top birding sites) and vehicles. Despite our focus on small groups and the fact that we err on the side of superior quality, our prices are competitive.

It is Birding Ecotours’ company policy to contribute a minimum of 10 % of profits to conservation and local communities. We are passionate about birding and also about leaving a legacy – by genuinely helping people and conserving birds – for generations to come.

We like to do things differently. For example, we offer some unique tours, including Owls of the World® Tours, tough mammal tours (fancy an Aardvark or a Black-footed Cat?), and more. Since 2003, we have been innovating some of the most wonderful tours available.

Our main focus is, of course, on finding the important birds (especially the endemics and specials). Our trip lists are very important to us (we do encourage you to look at these and compare them with those of other companies). However, we understand that birding tours can be tiring, so we prefer to add a day or two and actually have folks enjoy the birding tour. This also gives us backup time, in case some birds don’t cooperate as expected, and also allows time to stop for mammals and other interesting things along the way.

We also run a good number of Birding Photo Tours, which need a different approach to a typical birding tour – more space in the vehicles for camera gear, the correct tour pace to get photos, angling the vehicle correctly, and constantly thinking about lighting.

If you contact us, you’ll find that we’re very enthusiastic and highly efficient at e-mailing detailed information to you. It’s our contagious enthusiasm for birding (and for the natural world as a whole) that spurs us on to give outstanding service

Video captured of a majestic Great Grey Owl just before dusk in Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota!

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT US

“We just returned from our trip to Thailand. It was wonderful. Thank you very much for arranging our tour with Andy Walker. He was the best guide we ever had. He is knowledgeable,easy going, hard working, and has all the qualities that people expect from a guide. We really enjoyed birding with him. We would be happy to go birding with him any time and would highly recommend him as a guide to any of our friends.
Thanks again for giving us the opportunity to have him as our guide.”

Ahmad & SueCanada

“What do you most need in a guide and a tour company? Some would say trustworthy arrangements that yet stay flexible to the needs of the individual birder, some would say someone who can find you the target birds and others might say an all-rounder who combines birding knowledge, great communications skills and organisational ability. Birding Ecotours and its owner/operator Chris Lotz tick all the boxes! I’ve birded with Chris and travelled with the company and asked them to arrange tours for others, and Chris has come up trumps every time. I value my own integrity too much to give endorsements unless I have personal experience that truly warrants it. I recommend Chris Lotz and Birding Ecotours!”

Bo Beolenswww.fatbirder.com

“We had an absolutely wonderful weekend at Ezemvelo. Great company, good weather and Dylan. What a good guide that young man is!!! He certainly knows his birds, and tries very hard to make everyone happy. He really goes out of his way. He’s such a gentleman, he’s going to go far. By the way four adults and one Blue Crane chick were seen on the weekend. Also a Black Stork, which Dylan was so pleased to see, and a couple of Honey Buzzards”

Bev CarstensJohannesburg, South Africa

“We toured Namibia in a private group of six people through Birding Ecotours in 2010. Our group was rather diverse, with birding desires ranging from obsessive to casual and including a wildlife photographer. The range of interests could have led to issues, but we all were very satisfied with the trip. We not only had great birding results, thoroughly satisfying the more bird-oriented among us, but also had unforgettable experiences viewing mammals to the delight of the entire group. The tour was well-organized and well-executed, we had plenty of information in advance, the arrangements took account of our special needs, accommodations and transportation were excellent, and the price was quite reasonable. We were delighted with the trip and look forward to our next adventure (already booked!) with Birding Ecotours.”

Bill HeckOhio

“On a special (custom) trip for a dozen target birds: “I want to tell you that Eduardo and Raul were great on the recent trip in Peru. They worked hard to find birds for me. Raul is a careful, safe driver”.”